John Robert Slaughter enlisted in the National Guard in 1940 at the age of 15, allowing that he might have lied about his age on his application. Four years later, on June 6, 1944, Slaughter, part of the 116th Army Infantry Regiment, saw many men from his unit fall to enemy fire on Omaha Beach. He recalls that five of nine officers, ten sergeants, and two corporals were killed. "It was just a bunch of privates and sergeants and corporals trying to… get something going and trying to get it to succeed." Sixty years later, he is still unsure how he escaped injury, though he was wounded twice in subsequent action.